Place and People

Sorce:http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/beato_places/index.html

This is a temple in Nagasaki, called Dai-oon-ji. It means ‘loud noise’.

This picture was taken to show how the Dai-oon-ji looks like. However, the person who took the picture did not go far from the temple and tried to take all of the details, instead he took focusing on the entrance which is the main part of the temple.

This is a traditional temple which has tile roofing and the building itself is mainly made by wood. There are some decorations under the roof. The doors are fusuma door and I guess in the inside, there are tatami.

On the left side of the picture, there is palm tree which is just the right height. It does not cover the temple but the tree is not so small. It seems like someone planted there because it is surrounded by the block. On the right side of the temple, there is a tree which is unique looking. At first, I thought these palm trees were from the foreign countries (palm tree gives me image of tropical country), but searching on the Internet, there was some in Japan too.  

It gives me sense of unity of the temple and the nature, because there are tree all around the temple and some of the tall trees are covering the roof.

There is four people visiting there which looks like farmers or merchant. Some are bowing to the temple and the priest standing on the stairs. Next to the priest, there is a samurai. They looks like having a conversation.

This temple is so beautiful because the nature and the building matches perfectly!

Sorce:http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/beato_people/fb2_visnav01.html

The person who took this picture wanted the viewer to see the girl and this way of presenting a picture reminds me of pinhole camera.

This girl is playing koto. Koto is an instrument which you pluck the strings to play. In these days, these instruments must have been expensive. The girl wears nice kimono and has very nice hair accessories. These accessories are called kanzashi. She wears nice kimono and we can tell that she is from a rich family. In the left of the picture, there is a tea pot and a table.

She is sitting up straight and looking at the koto and playing some music. Her eyes are very serious and concentrating on her work. The way she looks at the koto and the way she sits gives an image that she has dignity.

assigment 2

Sorce:http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/black_ships_and_samurai_02/bss_visnav04.html

The reason I chose this picture is because it seemed so new to me, and in the same time, this picture can’t be true. However, this is the impression that Japanese got when they first saw the black ship.

In this picture, the weather is so dark, I mean cloudy, but still, it is not raining. The ship is dark too which is black. The ocean is in deep blue, and the waves are a little high. The ship must have been big, because the people are so tiny. Some people are hanging on the ropes. Flags were expressing the country of the ship. (Although, the flag does not seems to be the American flag) There are a lot of holes on the side of the ship. From one of the hole, there is light going out that looks like searching a land (they are searching Japan!) For the other holes, it may be for the lights or it may be the gun holes.

On this ship, there are two faces. One is on the right, and his eyes are blue. He looks like he is opening his mouth and saying something. The other face on the left side of the ship has an angry looking face but at the same time, he seems to be grinning. On the top of his head, there is horn which is very long. It even reminds me of the Japanese sword.

This picture is used dark colors and we can tell that the painter must be terrified by the black ship. The waves, clouds, searching light, and the faces on the ship are not a bright image. They would have thought that Japan is going to be invaded or something bad is going to be happening. In addition, Japan was in the closed-door policy so they were so surprised to see the big black ship.

assignment 1

Sorce: http://blog.ibaragi-ibaraki.com/entry_3050.html

This picture is from the commercial of the Toyota car called PASSO. This car is the smallest car in Toyota and it is so popular among women.

In this picture, we can see that it took place in the university, because most of the people are wearing business suits and the building does not seems to be a company. Only women are walking on the street, and some people are walking with friends and some people are walking with mothers. The season is in spring, because there are cherry blossoms. Time is 10:25 in the morning, and the weather is sunny. It appears that they are having an entrance ceremony. In the middle of the road, there is a car with a big flower on the top. This flower is making the car cute and even we see the car a little bit small because the flower is so big.

This picture implies that this car can be ride by women and even by university students, because there are no men in the picture. Usually, Toyota makes a commercial based on cool concepts, for example Lexus and Corolla. However, this car is different. We can see the color pink which is so lovely and this color sometimes represent girl’s color. In addition, this takes place in the university, which the students need to go there mostly every day.  Therefore, it appears to me that we can use the car every day like we go to the campus.